Katy ISD to begin academy for drop-outs
Classes set to start this fall for students who no longer attend district schools
At Katy ISD, about 275 students each year leave school one day and never go back.
Reasons for dropping out are many, including teen pregnancy, unstable home lives and the necessity for youths to enter the work force to make ends meet.
In 2008, KISD opened Martha Raines High School for academically struggling students, but there hadn’t been a location designed for students who have dropped out.
Until now.
A district academy in partnership with the Simon Youth Foundation will begin this fall at Katy Mills Mall for KISD drop-outs. Classes will commence sometime around September, with a grand opening on Sept. 22, according to SYF spokesperson Jay Kenworthy.
“What we look for is for malls to have space and for school districts that are serious about addressing drop-out issues. And we look for school districts willing to support the program,” Kenworthy said. “Katy fit all of that.”
Simon Property Group is the owner of Katy Mills Mall and the founder of the SYF, a nonprofit that partners with public school districts nationwide to create an academy for
drop-outs at Simon-owned properties.
SYF funds the construction, which usually costs more than $500,000, and leases the space. Districts are responsible for providing the curriculums, educators and program details. Katy ISD will spend roughly $655,000 per year on the program from its general operating revenue, according to the district. The district has a yearly budget that hovers in the $700 million range.
SYF has 26 other academies in the country, with the inaugural location opening in San Antonio in 1998. The Katy facility will be the third Texas location and the first in the Houston area. The state’s other SYF academy is in El Paso.
The program graduates 90 percent of its classes, according to SYF, which provides each academy up to $5,000 in grants for opportunities such as teacher development and distributes more than $1 million in college scholarships to some of its graduates.
SYF officials successfully pitched the program to Katy trustees late last year. The district’s Raines High School aids at-risk students and potential dropouts but KISD hasn’t had a resource to concentrate on students who dropped out, trustees said last year.
“Many times, returning to a traditional school setting is difficult and a challenge to students; so creating a space that is small and unique allows students to enter with a different mindset,” said Heather DeVries, the intervention and recovery coordinator at the district’s dropout prevention department, in an emailed statement. “Additionally, staff will be focused on identifying and lessening barriers for students that have prohibited them from being successful in their previous school settings.”
The district was not clear about how many students have enrolled for the academy this year, but the roughly 4,000-square-foot space for the academy located on the east side of the mall has a capacity of about 70, DeVries said.
The program is designed for students to experience more one-on-one time with teachers than they would find at regular public schools. The academy will staff six teachers.
With movable walls throughout the four classrooms, various teaching spaces can be created, Kenworthy said. The academies typically have more flexible schedules and assignments that adhere to the struggling students. Students will be responsible for their transportation to the mall, DeVries said.
The academy’s staff has been contacting potential students, who are KISD students who withdrew from a district high school campus during the 201516 school year and did not enroll in another academic setting, according to DeVries. School hours will be from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m but will include two separate time sessions to accommodate students’ schedules.
A 2015 report by the Washington D.C.-based Alliance for Excellent Education said the national dropout rate had dropped by 27 percent from 2008 to 2012. As of 2014, the national dropout rate was 6.5 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
KISD’s dropout rate, DeVries said, is 1.2 percent.
But the problem has by no means vanished.
According to KISD’s 2015-16 figures, approximately 42 percent of students are also categorized as at-risk, meaning they’re liable to not succeed at school without considerable help.
The academy’s primary focus is “to assist students in earning their high school diploma and looking beyond to potential life-changing career/ post high school opportunities,” DeVries said in her statement.
When the SYF officials first discussed the program with the school board, some trustees questioned if having a school at a mall would distract students. Kenworthy argued the opposite, saying students are in a secluded part of the mall and can benefit if they also hold a job there, which occurs frequently, he said.
“One of the most difficult things is convincing (students and parents) that there are no alternative motives here,” Kenworthy said. “Once we’re able to show local communities what we do as a foundation, it’s usually arms wide open from there.”
Most people on the SYF Facebook page gave the academy high ratings.
Aside from the program at the mall, the SYF will also distribute grant and scholarship money to Raines High School to use for students, improvement of programs and teacher development.